Author: kenmay

Pirate Bay Founder Warg Being Held in Solitary Confinement

From Torrent Freak comes news that one of the Pirate Bay founders is now being held in solitary confinement after Sweden turned him over to Denmark. From the article: “In a recent letter sent to Amnesty and shared with TorrentFreak, Gottfrid’s mother Kristina explains her son’s plight. She says that Gottfrid is being kept in solitary and treated as if he were a ‘dangerous, violent and aggressive criminal’ even though his only crime — if any — is hacking. Gottfrid’s lawyer Luise Høi says the terms of his confinement are unacceptable and are being executed without the correct legal process. ‘It is the case that Danish authorities are holding my client in solitary confinement without a warrant, ‘ Høi explains, noting that if the authorities wish to exclude Gottfrid from access to anyone except his lawyer and prison staff, they need to apply for a special order.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Pirate Bay Founder Warg Being Held in Solitary Confinement

This New Naval UAV Is a "Blackjack"-of-All-Trades

Predator drones are very, very good at what they do, but $8 million will only get you about half of one. Doesn’t matter which half, that guy ain’t gonna to fly. Instead, the US Navy is investing in a smaller, lighter, more versatile recon drone. Read more…        

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This New Naval UAV Is a "Blackjack"-of-All-Trades

California Man Arrested for Running ‘Revenge Porn’ Website

cold fjord writes “Yahoo reports, ‘A California man was arrested on Tuesday on accusations he ran a ‘revenge porn’ website, one that featured nude pictures of women often posted by jilted or angry ex-lovers … The San Diego arrest, the latest action by the state to crack down on such websites, comes after California Governor Jerry Brown signed a first-in-the-nation law in October specifically targeting revenge porn. The law defines revenge porn as the posting of private, explicit photos of other people on the Internet to humiliate them. But authorities did not charge 27-year-old Kevin Bollaert under that law, because it is geared to those who post the incriminating pictures and not those who run websites that feature them …. Bollaert’s site, which is no longer operational, had featured over 10, 000 sexually explicit photos, and he charged women up to $350 each to remove their photos, officials said. … Bollaert was charged under a California identity theft law that prohibits using identifying information of a person without their permission, and under anti-extortion legislation, according to court documents. Unlike many other revenge porn websites, Bollaert’s site had required users post the photo subject’s full name, location, age and a link to the person’s Facebook profile, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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California Man Arrested for Running ‘Revenge Porn’ Website

Outlook.com’s latest move to win over Gmail users is an easy, one-step importer that copies over you

Outlook.com’s latest move to win over Gmail users is an easy, one-step importer that copies over your Gmail messages with labels, read status and conversation structure intact. The feature is new today, with a gradual rollout to all Outlook users. [ Outlook Blog via Engadget ] Read more…        

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Outlook.com’s latest move to win over Gmail users is an easy, one-step importer that copies over you

The Next Big Thing in Geo Software

Data consolidated from a farmer’s plow’s GPS as it circled near Dmitriyev, Russia. Uncovering unknown territory is more and more rare, as GPS paired with the Web has made even the most remote or unusual routes accessible to the world. The free service of OpenStreetMap (OSM) has more than one million registered users contributing data from GPS, aerial photography and just regular traversing across every possible route in the world. OSM has more than a decade of consolidated data and is often referred to as the “Wikipedia for maps.” But the interesting part is that their data are considered their primary product, and not actual maps. Many sites are powered with OSM data—like Craigslist, Foursquare, Geocaching, MapQuest—organizations that want to use it instead of pricey Google Maps. But OSM also powers the beautiful maps produced by the startup MapBox. Here’s an example of a runner’s various routes (the thicker red lines represent the number of times he ran that particular route) using data from OSM. (more…)

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The Next Big Thing in Geo Software

Spotify tablet streaming goes free — if you don’t mind sitting through a few ads

We can’t say as we were particularly taken aback by today’s Spotify announcement, after all someone spilled the beans the other week (thanks a lot, The Wall Street Journal ) – but we trekked through a cold New York City morning to Spotify headquarters all the same. As anticipated, the company used the occasion to announce a free version of its tablet streaming service. Of course, nothing in this life is truly free, right? As such, the streaming offering will be ad-supported, much like the non-premium version of its desktop offering. Ek kicked things off by rattling off some impressive numbers, including 1.5 billion playlists created (with one and a half million made each day) and 4.5 billion hours of music streamed last year, before launching into the big news of the morning. The new version of the service will work with both Android and iOS tablets and plays along nicely with the company’s new Connect offering, so you can play that music through some of those high-end compatible speaker systems. You’ll be able to access your playlists through your tablet devices, but beyond that the exec didn’t break down the service too much, save for saying that it’s “the same as the desktop experience.” Filed under: Home Entertainment , Software Comments

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Spotify tablet streaming goes free — if you don’t mind sitting through a few ads

In Norway, all library books must be digitized — by law

A law in Norway has their National Library scanning all literature and then making it publicly available to anyone to anyone coming in under a Norwegian IP address. Pretty cool, if you’re in Norway now or in the near-ish future. But it’s also pretty awesome for the much more distant future. Read more…        

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In Norway, all library books must be digitized — by law

AT&T offers gigabit Internet discount in exchange for your Web history

AT&T is watching you browse. Seth Anderson AT&T’s “GigaPower” all-fiber network has launched in parts of Austin, Texas, with a price of $70 per month for download speeds of 300Mbps (which will be upgraded to a gigabit at no extra cost in 2014). The $70 price is only available if you agree to see targeted ads from AT&T and its partners, however. Interestingly, AT&T labels the Internet service with targeted ads as its “premier” service while calling the service without targeted ads “standard.” Not only is the price of the premier service (with ads) only $70 a month, but it comes with a waiver of equipment, installation, and activation fees. The standard service without ads is $99 a month, and there’s no mention of a waiver in AT&T’s announcement . “The waiver is part of the Premier package, so is not available with the standard service at this time,” AT&T told Ars. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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AT&T offers gigabit Internet discount in exchange for your Web history

This gorgeous skyscraper is also a wind power plant

Behold the Pertamina Energy Tower, a U.S.-designed building that’s slated for construction in Jakarta, Indonesia. Reaching a height of a half-kilometer, the tower will harvest its own wind energy through an opening at its peak. Read more…        

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This gorgeous skyscraper is also a wind power plant